Homebase and Atypical Descriptions
Archive: Used Bookdealer
During our Homebase database crisis I did download our listings from ABE. It was a revelation.
Have you ever wondered how book descriptions come to be Unknown/Unknown?
Not long after starting to sell used books online I stopped using standard terms like Fine, VG, etc.
I got tired of having to explain what fine meant. And was nervous about people who couldn't know that good means not very good at all.
I started using clearly descriptive phrases in Homebase's condition fields.
At some point ABE stopped accepting anything that doesn't match the old catalog conventions.
At least I know why our book descriptions stopped appearing on ABE. And when I downloaded our listings I saw that the bulk of our cataloged inventory was Unknown/Unknown.
You may be thinking that I should've kept the old bookseller terminology and added descriptions for the uninformed in the big description area. I have severe carpal tunnel - some days I just want to chop my fingers off - so that seemed to painful.
Oddly I'd just started doing both because of the way Amazon uses Fine and Near Fine. But I'm not going to go back and edit 15,000 listings for ABE.
Feel free to share your feelings about Homebase and Atypical Descriptions. Please stick to the theme of the entry. Disagreement is fine. Homophobia, racism, and kindred expressions of hatred will be deleted.
This site is one of my hobbies. I genuinely enjoy hearing from people and hate moderating or killing comments. Forthright disagreement is fine as long as it is civil.
My thanks,
Richard
1 · Posted by: jmnlman on May 30, 2006 05:07 PM
that makes a lot more sense than the idea that the seller just left the info blank. good to know thanks!